


Another Night Alone In The City

by alexenglish



Series: Tumblr Fic [9]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Coda, Gen, Post-Canon, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-13
Updated: 2015-11-13
Packaged: 2018-05-01 09:22:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,255
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5200580
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alexenglish/pseuds/alexenglish
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It’s a nightmare, Derek knows; he’s had enough of them to identify it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Another Night Alone In The City

**Author's Note:**

> This can be gen or pre-slash, either way.

It’s a nightmare, Derek knows; he’s had enough of them to identify it. He knows, but he can’t wake himself up, the blackness is dragging him down, keeping him asleep. There’s a white pain burning behind his sternum, he feels like he’s  _dying_ , it hurts so badly. At first he thinks _Boyd_ , but it’s not – Boyd’s dead, for some reason, it feels like  _Scott_ , like alpha and Derek doesn’t know why. It’s pitch black, and Derek is  _dying_ ,  _someone_  is dying –

The sound of a sharp vibration rips Derek from the nightmare. He sits straight up, covered in sweat, mouth full of battery acid. His joints are dead locked, claws digging into his hands. There’s blood on the sheets, and sour feeling in his stomach. His phone is vibrating loudly on the floor next to the bed, where he keeps it  _just in case_.

Just in case Braeden calls, and tells him they have to move along. Just in case, he hears from Cora. Just in case, the Beacon Hills pack calls him. 

He’s not actually expecting any of those things, because Braeden would come home before calling, she would haul him up and move them out before he blinked the sleep out of his eyes. Cora doesn’t need him, not really. The pack she’s with has a steady alliance with the group of hunters down there; it’s an incredibly safe pack. The Beacon Hill’s pack has a strong true alpha, and it’s been a whole summer of peace. A whole summer of silence.

The screen says “Scott McCall” when Derek picks up the phone, squinting through the brightness burning his eyes. His heart jolts in his chest, it feels like fear, he’s  _terrified_ for no reason that he can identify. 

Maybe it’s a misdial, he tells himself, watching it vibrate in his hand. He should pick it up, he _needs_ to pick it up –

“Scott?” he asks, quietly, because it’s late - or early - and the darkness has a sense of fragility that he doesn’t want to break. 

There’s no answer, only a sharp intake of breath. Over the phone, Derek can hear the thud of a heart beat, the rustle of clothing. There’s a sniffle. Then, another. At least there are signs of life.

“Scott?” Derek asks, a little louder. All of his veins are heavy, brain too slow from the nightmare. All he can think about is Scott, Scott, Scott; doesn’t realize he’s saying his name out loud until there’s a choking sound from the other side of the line. A laugh, a sob, Derek can’t tell. 

“Hey,” Scott says, and there’s fractures in his voice, like it’s peeling itself away from the walls of his throat. It sounds hollow and broken in a way Derek isn’t used to. It’s been a summer of silence, but Scott called him a few days after he left.

_“How long will you be gone for?”_

_“I don’t know.”  
_

_“Well, we don’t need you. At least, I think we don’t. Take as much time as you need, okay?”  
_

_“Okay.”_

_“Derek…”  
_

_“What?”  
_

_“I’ll miss you.”  
_

Derek didn’t reply, and Scott hung up, but the words rang in Derek’s head for months afterwards. During that call, Scott sounded sad, but like he was doing his best to be reassuring and now – 

Now, it’s nothing like that. Scott hardly sounds like Scott at all. The kid who’s unfailingly optimistic, even when it’s going to get him killed.

“What’s wrong?” Derek demands, already swinging his legs over the side of the bed. Braeden took her bike, so he can use the Toyota, check them out of the extended stay hotel. He’ll shoot her a text, she’ll meet him in Beacon Hills, if she’s not already there with Malia. 

Fuck, he should have just gone with her, but he was so content to be away just a little while longer. He should have been thinking. A summer of peace probably just geared them up for something worse than before. How could he be so stupid, just leaving them to it?

“Don’t –” Scott clears his throat. “I’m fine.”

Over the line, his heart skips and accelerates. 

“You’re lying,” Derek says, automatically. He hears Scott swallow, throat clicking; he thinks about the burning pain in his chest, the way he was locked in that nightmare. It was like being held underwater. His muscles still ache from it.

“Who hurt you?” he asks, because he knows now, that it wasn’t a nightmare, that he was feeling  _something_. The reason he couldn’t stop thinking about Scott was because it was happening  _to Scott_. Nothing like that has ever happened between them before, but Derek knows he’s right.

“It doesn’t matter,” Scott says, and his heart is all over the place.

“Are you just going to lie to me the whole call?” Derek asks, losing patience. The minute the words leave his mouth, he wants to take them back. It’s not Scott’s fault – “Sorry.”

“I didn’t call you to talk about it,” Scott says, voice low. 

“Why did you call?” Derek asks, gently. He wants to protest, demand that Scott explain, but Derek understands the need for something entirely separate from all the bullshit of being an alpha. Derek can be that. Maybe not entirely, because of their past, but Derek isn’t in Beacon Hills, so he can be separate.

“I miss you,” Scott says, just as quiet, the first steady words that he’s spoken since Derek picked up the phone. 

“I miss you, too,” Derek says, without any hesitation. He’s spent nights awake, thinking about how he should have said something the last time Scott called. Derek should have told him that he was thinking of him, had been thinking of him since he left; how Derek wished he had actually gone  _up_  to Scott, pulled him into a hug. 

Things might be easier if he left with the gritty, wild, dirty scent of Scott in his nostrils, the feeling of his skin under his hands. But, it might have just made him miss his alpha  _more_. 

“Don’t come back,” Scott says. It’s that same low tone, but more firm. Almost intoned with alpha, but not quite. Derek doesn’t know if Scott could bring himself to give anyone an alpha command.

“Why not?”

“There’s some stuff going on, I don’t want you involved.”

“Scott –”

“No, Derek,” Scott says, firmer still.

“You’re my pack, I’m already involved,” Derek says, trying to put as much conviction into his tone as possible. It’s hard to tell if Scott thinks of him as pack, but Derek thinks of himself as pack, and he’s pretty that’s what matters to Scott. He hears the hitch of Scott’s breath, the stutter of his heart. Derek’s hands tingle and ache, desperate to touch. 

“I’m going to handle it,” Scott says, in a tone that Derek can’t really argue with. He’s been staring at his shoes for a long time, trying to decide if he’s going to leave. It takes less than ten minutes to pack, he can check out online, but. 

He has to trust Scott, and what Scott says. If Scott says he’s going to take care of it, then Derek has to  _trust that_. 

“Just tell me you’ll be okay,” Derek says, low. The words are raw, out of character, heart pounding at the top of his throat. They leave his throat, taking his heart with them. Over the line, Derek hears Scott take a deep, steadying breath.

“I’ll be okay,” Scott says, and his heart beat only jumps a little bit.

**Author's Note:**

> [tumblrrrr](http://queerlyalex.tumblr.com/post/132256727847/its-a-nightmare-derek-knows-hes-had-enough-of)


End file.
